handwaver

Noun

handwaver (plural handwavers)

1. (uncommon) One who speaks or writes sweepingly, glossing over details, often including important details.
   • Take his predictions about our technological and business-development timelines with a grain of salt, because he's an inveterate handwaver.
   • It is easy to lose sight of the fact that the oversimplified model that is eddy diffusion must be used with care and with a great deal of auxiliary physical insight. Well-educated handwavers often produce more useful results than the people who concentrate on the mathematical and computational...1975, Donald M. Hunten, “Vertical transport in atmospheres”, in B.M. McCormac, editor, Atmospheres of Earth and the Planets: Proceedings of the Summer Advanced Study Institute, Held at the University...
2. (uncommon) One who raises their hand a lot.
   • A gifted pupil might sometimes need to be coached privately about avoiding presenting themself as a handwaver.
   • The very intelligent pupil soon becomes bored by the repetition and sits aloof and inattentive, or he becomes a "handwaver" and thus draws upon himself unwarranted and sometimes open rebuke by his classmates.1954, Henry J. Warman, Geography: Backgrounds, Techniques, and Prospects [teaching manual], Worcester, Massachusetts, USA: Edwards Brothers, page 55